Serenity
by Mind's Odyssey
Summary: Hit a ball too hard, and it will bounce back forcefully in retaliation * I just need to know that I did my best and gave it all I got * I don't get why they have to apply unnecessary burden on themselves * Okay, Sir Mysterious, I give up. Please tell me what's wrong * I have to excel, or else I would be separated from him... (AU) Roxas one shot, some fluff, rated T just in case.


**Kingdom Hearts One Shots Series  
****05 – Serenity**

Pairing: Roxas x Anonymous

Great, just great… She had just received her marked Math exercise book from her teacher. And as usual, she could see a lot of red in it. Not artistic at all. And to her worst luck, the Math exam was around the corner, and it was a decisive one. Why, you ask? Because she had two reasons: One, if she failed, she wouldn't be able to advance to the next grade. Two, she wouldn't be able to be in the same class with a certain somebody…

Speaking of which, said somebody had just returned to his seat from the teacher's desk. The person was Roxas, a handsome boy with blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes. His hair was wind-swept to his right and he was kind of short, yet still lean and slightly muscular, a result from his activeness in Struggle tournaments. Despite being busy with his extra-curricular activities, he was the top student in her class. He was practically good in anything, especially Math. It would be a surprise if he didn't score full marks from each Math test. Her classmates idolized him as their "Math God", and the girls just went crazy for him.

Well, she did have a crush on Roxas, who wouldn't? He was perfect in every way, and according to the gossips among some girls, he was currently not involved in any relationships. She admired him ever since she saw him walking into her class on the first day at school. Although he seemed to be the quiet, thoughtful type, he got along with most people easily, but he was pretty shy among girls, and has yet to talk to her. He sat at the front row, so in each class she just stared at him from the back (not in a stalker's way, of course). She just didn't get it, how could a human being could be so flawless?

She always wanted to strike a conversation with him, but sadly, when she was about to approach him, her diminishing confidence just went "poof" and she had to retreat to her "comfort zone" without even trying to say hi. After some time, she decided to find some similar topics to share with him, at least she wouldn't run out of things to say when the time comes. Since she was not a big fan of Struggle, she thought of Math. And she had decided to improve Math, a subject she could care less in the older days, in order to try to "connect" with him.

But one thing was bugging her: Her Math academic performance was on the borderline between pass and fail.

She couldn't help it, she wasn't into these number businesses, and all those equations looked like haunted scribbling to her, undecipherable. Her mind regarded it as "plain boring" and she could care less if she failed. Well, this was not applicable now, was it?

She wasn't going to give up hope just yet, even if with the odds she's facing. Nearly everyone in her class was good in Math, with Roxas as the top scorer. At the thought of studying Math to raise her grades, she felt as if someone tied a bunch of gigantic rocks on her shoulders for her to carry them. It was so pressurizing, and that was also one thing she didn't get about Roxas. Whenever she saw him, he exuded a tranquil and serene facade. He didn't even feel a bit of peer pressure or whatever it was. He was laid-back, and didn't even seem to study as much as the brainy ones, yet he could score more than 90 marks with ease, as if he was born with the gift of Math. Unfair, much?

At times she kept telling herself to just ignore the developing crush she had on him. It was no way possible for him to return her feelings anyway. Who was she? She was seen as the quiet, slightly anti-social girl in the class; a total opposite of Roxas.

Nevertheless, that wasn't going to keep her down from improving Math. "Okay, I'll make him as my motivation then," she thought, content of her final decision. That way, she wouldn't give up easily. When school ended, she rushed to the bookstore nearby and bought loads of exercise books and reference books, scaring the living daylights out of the cashier lady. She burned half of her savings, so she wanted to make the most out of them. Once she reached home, she went to her room straightaway and put the books on her desk. Then she proceeded to work on the questions. Being her self-proclaimed nemesis, Math was giving her a hard time. Even after half an hour she still hadn't finished two pages.

Her brain was screaming "overload", and she finally slammed the book shut to give herself a break. If she had exploded her brain now, how was she going to handle the school work? And the questions weren't easier than the extra exercises she subjected herself into. "Sigh… Why is Math so hard when anyone can score easily?" she sighed for the zillionth time for that day. She was definitely not going to make progress like this…

* * *

One afternoon, when the school bell finally rang to signal dismissal, she was left behind by her classmates, because she was busy packing up her stuff. She always was the last to walk out, since she took her own sweet time to keep away her things. No point rushing when she wasn't in a hurry, right? She was so engrossed in her work she didn't notice a person walking to her, and the person spoke, "Hi…"

Her head perked up at the voice, she never expected anyone to talk to her at all, and to her astonishment, the person was the most impossible candidate in striking a conversation with her – Roxas. He had a slight smile on his face, and under the golden yellow sunlight, she didn't see a faint tint of pink on his face. He asked, fumbling for words a bit, "How was your day?" "Uh… Fine, I guess…" she replied just as awkwardly. While talking to him, her hand grabbed a Math reference book subconsciously. He seemed to notice that. "I… um, I can see you are struggling with Math… So, I thought maybe you need some help…" he said, but trailed off near the end of the sentence. She just stared at him. He… what? He wanted to… help her?

Roxas quickly added, "It's okay if you don't need the help, I'm fine with both ways, ha ha." He laughed awkwardly at the end, but the laugh was… pleasing to her ears. And she couldn't help but crack a smile at him. She replied, "It's okay… But I accept your… help, if that's what you mean." "Why not? I would have to need all the help I need, and not to mention this is going to be my chance of getting to know him better," her thoughts analyzed to her. Roxas seemed surprised that she would accept his sudden offer, but he quickly regained his composure and nodded, and said, "Okay then. How about we go to the public library every day after school, starting tomorrow?" She didn't see anything wrong with this and she agreed, "Sure. It looks like a good place for quiet study time."

He then added, "Oh right… I still haven't caught your name… I'm Roxas." He extended a hand to her, and she took it awkwardly and shook hands with him. It was weird since he introduced himself to her even though she was well aware he was Roxas. She replied nonetheless, "I'm [A/N: Suspense... look through the first few chapters to figure out the mysterious person], nice to meet you." "That's a nice name…" he mumbled. She felt her cheeks heated up a little at his compliment. "… Thank you…?" That question mark was hard to hide at a time like that.

All too soon for her, he had to leave, for he still had his Struggle practice in the schedule. Before he exited the classroom, he looked at her and smiled. She would be lying if she denied melting at the sight of it. She just stood there, watching him walking further and further away from her. And then, she shook her head to snap out of her thoughts. She still had homework to do and it'd be best if she returned now. She picked up her bag and sighed, but it was a content one, free of worry.

* * *

After that awkward meeting, they would show up at the public library at the appointed time. They would sit at a faraway vacant table and study Math together, with him as her tutor. Today was one of those days… "So you see, since this locus P moves around this fixed point in a fixed distance, therefore the equation of locus should be a circle, with that constant distance as the radius…" She tried your best to follow, but she ended up in either two of these situations: One, lost along the way because she didn't understand at all, or two, lost in his voice… She knew now wasn't a good time for that, but she couldn't help it. Gosh, how could one focus when one's crush was tutoring someone?

"_By using first derivative, you can obtain the gradient of the tangent this curve…"  
"… This is how you obtain the quadratic formula from the equation ax__2__ + bx + c = 0…"  
"To use this formula, you would have to change the unit degree to radian, following these steps…"  
"… Basic trigonometric identities… Aha! You can use this one to prove this identity… Here…"  
"Actually, there are 13 more possibilities in arranging these items, you have to include these…"_

… Oh god, they were right when they said MATH – Mental Abuse To Humans!

But still, after a week's drill or so, she was starting to get the hang of it. She could now solve some questions with medium difficultly, which was good since she had improved. But she was well aware that she still had a long way to go, and having Roxas as her final target was kind of tiring. Hey, he scored full marks all along the way and she was struggling to pass. Enough said.

And Roxas always had a knack in solving the questions, like his second nature. Sometimes she even wondered whether Pythagoras or some other ancient mathematician possessed him to give him the genius traits. But under his influence, she seemed to have changed her view on Math. He told her that she had to try to love a subject she hated, otherwise she wouldn't bother to study it. And he was right, after forcing herself to "love" Math, she did find it not as boring as she thought.

Day after day, she showed progress of improvement. And now she had a new thing to worry about – When she became good enough, would Roxas leave her behind, since his job was done and all? And man, that thing plagued her like a restless lingering spirit. She decided to keep her progress a secret from him, and pretended to be the girl who didn't get Math at all. "At least this would buy me some time… Though I felt kind of guilty…" She felt even more anxious.

Days passed like an arrow darting away from the bow, and it was only a week before the exam which she feared earlier. Well, not anymore, for she had convinced herself she would do a lot better in this exam. She wouldn't just scrape through this time, heck; she could even aim for at least 80 marks if she got lucky. Everyone was getting busy with the upcoming exam, typical students who would die even if they lose 1 mark. But out of the chaotic bunch, she could still discover serene on Roxas's face. He looked… calm, content and collected as before. She thought if she could just be like him, maybe this worry she felt wouldn't be so hard to handle. "He must have some sort of smart study secret… Or what else could explain his expressions?" she mumbled to herself thoughtfully.

Even she wanted to know, but she wouldn't have the chance to practice it anyway. Time was running out, and she thought focusing on her studies was more important anyway. "I have to do well in this one, or else I would be separated from him…"

* * *

Days before the exam, something plain weird just happened: Her classmates lost their anxiety they manifested days ago, and there they were, chattering away as if the exam was nonexistent. As for her, sadly, she somehow got this irritating headache since this morning. She was at her seat, trying to review her homework for exam preparation. As she sped through the text, a frown slowly formed on her forehead. She was trying to focus, but the distractions were persistent to shatter her determination.

"… Why can't they just shut up…?!" she gritted her teeth and thought angrily. They were getting annoyingly annoying by the second. Slowly, she had to support her throbbing head with one hand. She narrowed her eyes. She felt her head heat up as the situation dragged on, the headache worsened over time and she could barely hold her fury.

"That was _it_," she snapped internally, "I had had enough!"

Blood seemed to rush to her head all of a sudden and she decided that was the last straw. She released the pent up irritation by slamming a tightly clenched fist forcefully onto the poor table before her. "BAM!"

A deafening, sickening sound startled everyone, and everyone went silent at once, as if someone stole their voices. They stared everywhere, wanting to find out the source of the noise. She glared at them venomously, with her breath heavy and quickened. She felt all energy drained out of her head and lightheadedness slipped in. Well, some of them saw her in her berserk-to-be mode, and they took the silent warning seriously this time. They went back to do their stuff, but kept dead quiet. "Finally, I can concentrate again…" she thought.

After some difficult effort, she could finally calm herself down. She felt coldness stung her limbs, but she was clouded by tiredness, and it made her too tired to care. The still throbbing headache compelled her to stop what she's doing. She couldn't read on anymore in this state, so with a soft sigh, she closed the book with a soft thud. All she needed now was a short nap to replenish. She folded her arms on the table and leaned in, burying her head in them, facing the surface of the table. Seconds after her head hit her arms, she felt herself dissipated into the land of sleepiness…

Something at the back of her mind was bugging her to wake up, and she opened her eyes tiredly. Firstly she saw the table's surface coming into view, and when she lifted her head slowly up, she was quite surprised to see everyone was gone. The school bell must've rung some time ago, without her realizing. Oh great… no one even bothered to wake her up. She got up drowsily and packed her things without giving much thought. She was still sluggish from her slumber, and the nap didn't help to alleviate her tiredness at all, but worsened it.

When she was done she picked up her bag hastily and shuffled to the door. When she made it to the door, she suddenly felt dizzy, everything she saw changed into stars and black patches flashed before her eyes. The next thing she knew, her legs lost the strength to support her and she slumped down like a sack of potatoes, losing consciousness. However, strangely, her head never hit the floor…

* * *

Again, something was bugging her to open her eyes again, and this time was the smell of disinfectant. Wait… disinfectant? She flew her eyes open only to see a white ceiling. She stirred around in bed to observe and she could draw a conclusion that she was in the school's infirmary. She held her head in one hand as she got up, sighing in annoyance. The headache wouldn't just leave her alone at peace, huh? And then she heard a rustle beside her and she heard a voice, "You're awake?"

Wait, that's Roxas's voice. Feeling shocked, she turned to her right to see the blonde boy getting up from a chair. He was rubbing his eyes; was he asleep all this while? "What… happened?" she asked, looking at him. He explained, "I wanted to check up on you… since you didn't look so well during class, but when I returned to the classroom, you passed out at the door… so… yeah…" His voice trailed off when the sentence approached its end. Right… she did recall passing out, so… he brought her to the infirmary. "Are you okay?" he asked, she could see worry in those two blue orbs. She remembered unleashing her bubbling irritation in class earlier ago, maybe that rash move startled him as well; although she was pretty sure he wasn't the contributor of the annoying noise.

She looked down at the bed sheet and mumbled, "Yeah, I guess…" "You sure? Last time the nurse checked, you have a fever though…" said Roxas. She just stared at him and before silence settled in, he continued, "You are sick, so maybe you should take a break from studying… Don't force yourself too much." "Don't force myself too much? Heh, that's too hard for me to achieve, seeing I myself wouldn't see you again if I don't," her thoughts retaliated upon hearing his words. "But-" "No buts. Everyone needs to rest, you aren't an exception." He sounded serious this time, even if he still maintained a calm facade.

She couldn't say a thing, after a few seconds, she nodded softly. He sensed the growing tension too, and he looked down at the floor. With a remorse tone, he mumbled, "Sorry…" "It's okay…" she replied just as softly. He then pulled the chair near to the bed and sat down. She leaned her back against the head of the bed in a seated position. They just stayed like that for the next ten minutes or so. And then without realizing she dozed off again. When she finally woke up again, she saw the blanket wrapped around her. She also saw him fallen asleep on the chair.

She got up quietly and looked at the clock. Crap, it's already four in the afternoon! She woke Roxas up and told him, "Hey… it's getting late." He blinked and stared at the clock. Without saying anything, he picked up both of their bags and gave hers to her. She took it and they walked out together. The walk was a rather awkwardly silent one. They didn't engage in eye contacts either. But when they were to part ways at the school gate, he asked out of the blue, "Do you feel better now?" She was taken aback at the sudden questioning, but replied anyway, "Huh? Yeah, I feel a lot better."

He nodded and said, "Good then. Well, I… got to go." "… Sure, go ahead…" And he turned to the opposite direction, leaving her to stare at him from his back. And when she least expected it, Roxas turned around and shouted at her, "Hey! Don't study too much or stay up late! Rest a bit more, okay?" He also waved at her to emphasize his point. She found herself giggling at his behavior, and she shouted back, "Okay! I will! Thank you, daddy!" She laughed softly when she saw him pouted a little, but a warm smile replaced it soon. "Bye!" "See you tomorrow!" And so, they parted ways in the lazy afternoon, under the yellow-orange sun. She felt like skipping all the way home, since she felt happy for no reason…

* * *

"This is it… he is going to distribute the test papers…" she thought, her eyes following her Math teacher, Mr. Leon, as he walked into the classroom with a stack of papers in his arms. Everyone had different expressions on their faces, some were worried, some were excited, and some just didn't care, at all. For her, this was her first time to put in a lot of effort in an exam, so she was anxious about her final score. She could feel her heart pumping faster and harder than usual. She wasn't quite used to this feeling, and it's nagging her, giving her negative thoughts. "Please don't let me fail the test… or else I'd be freaking wasted…" she silently prayed to no one in particular.

"Alright class, I am going to distribute the exam papers. I must say, I am quite impressed by the results… especially yours," Mr. Leon said, looking at her. "Huh?" She was surprised to hear him mentioning her, and everyone turned to the back to stare at her. She lost her voice all of a sudden and sweat seeped out from her palms. She stared blankly at the teacher, and he seemed to disregard that and continued, "For a student weak in Math, you did show a lot of improvement in this exam. You obtained a perfect 100 marks for this one. Congratulations."

"… Holy Chocobos, strike me dead where I stand!" Only her thoughts were racing. Verbally, she couldn't come up with anything. Three seconds passed in silence…

And the next thing she knew, everyone applauded, some even cheering at her. Some just stared at her, disbelief written all over their faces. She wasn't quite accustomed to this kind of attention, so she blushed. She could see a small approval smile on Mr. Leon's face. And thankfully she found her thought-to-be-lost voice and stammered, "T-thanks… Um… I-I'm not that… great…?" But no one heard her last sentence anyway, since her voice was quite small to begin with. The teacher managed to make them keep quiet and proceeded to distribute the others' test papers, while she just sat there, dazed and overjoyed altogether. She couldn't believe that! Seriously, 100 marks? Never in her craziest dream had she ever dreamed of that, but now it just came to her like a shooting star falling from the sky.

She quickly checked through the paper over and over, thinking the teacher may have overlooked some mistakes. But there weren't any of them. And she lost track of time, when she heard the bell rang, she felt as if it had only been three minutes. And she soon noticed a crumpled note crash landed onto her table out of nowhere. She wanted to look around to see who did that, but decided to go against it. She opened the crumpled note and it read:

_Hey, congratulations for scoring 100 marks! You should thank me for tutoring you, ha ha. Your reaction was kinda out of space back there, but cute. Meet me at the veranda of the school's clock tower during recess._

She looked at Roxas, and he was looking at her too. He was smiling his big goofy grin at her, revealing his white teeth. She also smiled a little at that. To tell the truth, she had forgotten about him a while back, too astonished at her score. "I wonder how much did he score? It should be 100 marks too…" And as if on cue, the recess bell screamed its victory, telling everyone it's time to rescue their grumbling stomachs. And as expected, everyone rushed out of the classroom like a tornado, even Mr. Leon had to sigh at the sight of it. "Kids these days…" She sighed in relief; at least it wasn't Mr. Vexen's class!

Anyways, when she finally made it to the veranda of the school's clock tower, gripping her test paper in her hand, Roxas was already there, sitting on the railing. He was staring at the afternoon scenery, with his back against her. She decided not to sneak up on him, since he may fall off for all she knew. She walked to him and coughed softly to get his attention. He jerked a little from his trance and turned his head enough for him to look at his back. "Hey, glad you make it. Here," he said with a smile and patted an empty space beside him, hinting her to sit there. She gulped at the height from the ground, but still sat down at said spot anyway. She didn't want to look down, it's her first time being so high up and she must admit, the breeze was cool there.

She then showed him the test paper and he took it to examine. He scanned through the paper and nodded approvingly, saying, "Well done. It seems my tutoring did pay off, huh?" She smiled and said, "Yeah, and thank you so much, Roxas." He smiled and replied, "See? Math isn't all that bad, right?" She couldn't deny that anymore and agreed, "It sure is… Wow…" Roxas then tilted his head aside slightly, like he thought of something important. And then he said, "Oh, right, almost forgot…" He turned to the opposite side beside him and fumbled for something in his bag. He pulled out two bars of ice-cream. Offering her one, he said, "Here, your reward for scoring that high. You deserved it."

She stared at the ice-cream; the color was kind of weird. It was light turquoise in color, and she was trying to figure out its flavor. Too bad her imagination wasn't good at all. Even so, she took it from him and replied, "Thanks… Um, what's the flavor?" He smiled and said playfully, "Not gonna tell ya~" She pouted a little and he looked amused. And then he prompted, "Try it first and see how it tastes like." Okay then… She carefully bit on it, feeling the pleasant coldness of the ice-cream. She slipped her eyes closed and reveled in the sensation. And then her tongue registered the taste as salty and sweet, a rather odd combination. She opened her eyes and said, "It's salty… but sweet at the same time… I like it!" Roxas laughed lightly at her response and said, "I knew you're going to like it. It's called 'sea-salt ice-cream'."

Sea-salt, huh? Hmm, she quickly memorized the name, keeping a mental note to buy it again next time. When they finished the ice-cream, she realized something important – Roxas's test score. She asked, "Then how about you? You scored 100 marks as well?" He blinked at her and said, "Nope, I got 94 marks this time." "… Huh? _What?_" Now that was another surprise for today; the "Math God" didn't achieve his usual academic performance?!

He shrugged, and said, "I did some silly mistakes back then. But it's okay; it's not the end of the world." "But, don't you feel… sad or regret? I mean… you could have scored a perfect 100 marks…" she blurted, surprised by his response. Roxas stared back at her for a second, confused, and then he laughed lightly and said, "Are you kidding me? Sad? Regret? Nah, I don't feel that way." "He sure seems carefree…" she thought.

"Everyone is bound to make mistakes. We are fallible after all. Life isn't a smooth sail itself, so… we would have to trip and fall sometimes, right?" he continued, looking at the faraway setting sun. He then added, "Test marks don't mean anything too much in life, they just evaluate how much you remember and learn from school, that's all. Sure, I'd like to see a perfect score on the paper, but I don't want to pressurize myself. If you hit a ball too hard, it will bounce back forcefully in retaliation." She just sat there, staring at him while thinking over his words. He didn't notice that and said, "No matter how much I score, I just need to know that I did my best and gave it all I got. And that's when I like sitting here eating ice-cream, as a reward for myself and a good stress relief… Geez, I sound funny, huh?"

She slowly shook her head and replied, "… No, you make perfect sense." He's right; all this long she had been pressurizing herself, pushing herself to her limit in order to score well and to get a chance to be in the same class as Roxas. And she got herself sick in the process, and also subjected herself to sleepless nights. It wasn't an enjoyable experience. His words just hit her like a hammer on the head. "Comparison drive people crazy, in order to win, they would risk anything. I don't get why they have to apply unnecessary burden on themselves… And then they would lose the experiences of the process to success, which are more valuable."

She smiled weakly, he was like telling her something unknowingly. She said, "You're right…" He turned to look at her, and she smiled at him while joking, "I didn't know you could be so philosophical. Do you have any weakness at all?" Roxas pouted and defended himself, "Hey, I thought I told you humans are fallible? And what do you mean philosophical? I am trying to be serious for once in my life!" She laughed playfully and said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry for ruining your serious moment… Anyway, people learn from mistakes, so let's see what mistake did you make, okay?" And then she reached out for his test paper, which he handed to her.

Soon, she found the sole mistake in his test paper – an empty spot where nothing was written in response to the question. "What? You left out a question unanswered?" she exclaimed in disbelief. Maybe he was a little too carefree… or careless. Roxas smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. He admitted, "Ha ha, silly me… But I forgot how to answer this type of question." She stared back at him with an "are you serious?" face, she then said, "Well then, looks like the disciple has to remind her tutor some basics, huh?" He said nothing, but grinning like a silly boy instead.

She borrowed a pencil from him and started to attempt the unanswered question. The question was this: Solve the inequality _2i – [ -9/2 (u) ] is smaller than [ 3(4u + i) ] /2_. (A/N: Gosh, this site won't display the greater/smaller sign...) "Why Roxas couldn't solve something I couldn't initially?" you thought, writing out the solution leading to the final answer.

_2i – [ -9/2 (u) ] is smaller than [ 3(4u + i) ] /2_

_2{ 2i – [ -9/2 (u) ] } is smaller than 3(4u + i)_

_2[ 2i + 9/2 (u) ] is smaller than 3(4u + i)_

_4i + 9u is smaller than 3(4u + i)_

_4i + 9u is smaller than 12u + 3i_

_4i – 3i is smaller than 12u – 9u_

_i is smaller than 3 u_

Done. Simple and sweet. She smiled a little when she got the answer, and then she turned to look at him with triumph, saying, "That's how you get the answer, dear tutor." Roxas laughed lightly, and shook his head gently, saying, "Nope, you didn't get the answer correct." Wait, what? She looked at him, confused again and she defended her point, "But I didn't, I wrote all these in the test too! And I got a perfect score, Roxas." She felt her eyes widen in confusion when he still maintained that same expression. "Look closely… And you would get what I mean."

She tried not to bulge her eyes out and looked through the steps, maybe she slipped up somewhere? But after some scrutinizing, nothing odd was found at all. She sighed in defeat and said to Roxas, "Okay, Sir Mysterious, I give up. Please tell me what's wrong." He smirked upon hearing her declaration of surrender. Now she felt like punching his face… He gently took the pencil from her hand and sat closer to her. She felt a light blush surfacing on her face upon the distance between them, but ignored it. She had to focus to see what exactly went wrong.

She thought he was going to rewrite the solution, or at least pinpoint out where she made the mistake. But, instead he scribbled at her final answer, like this: _i is smaller than 3u_. "See, what if you wrote the words closer to each other?" he said, looking at her. She said "But why-"

Wait. Just… wait. _i is smaller than 3u_? If one merged the "is smaller than" sign and "3" together… one would get-

_I love you?_

"Wh-" Her voice was caught in the middle of somewhere in her throat, unable to come out successfully. She looked at him, this time, his smile wasn't as big as before, he looked at her right in the eyes, and he whispered, "To tell you the truth, I purposely left out that question… for you to find out… what I really feel…" Right now, she was dumbfounded, totally dumbfounded. Three surprises in a row today, and now she didn't know what to say but to look at him. He started to pour out his feelings to her in a quiet voice, "Actually… I have this crush on you a long time ago… And seeing we were only in the same class in Math, if… you failed the exam, we won't be seeing each other… that easily, again… so… I thought helping you would solve this dilemma…"

"I wanted to tell you this earlier… but… I don't know if you… feel the same way as I do. Sorry… if I am bothering you, you could leave anytime…" Roxas trailed off, looking away. She could sense his insecurity, and finally it clicked in her mind: She felt the same way, it's not a one-way traffic! She gently grabbed his hand squeezing it softly and reassuringly. He looked at her, and she smiled, taking his pencil again and wrote something else on the paper beside the "corrected" answer: _(i is smaller than 3u) 2._ His big blue eyes widened upon seeing that and she looked at him once she was finished, and you repeated, "Roxas, it is not unrequited. I also… have a crush on you. I love you, _too_."

His face lighted up, and a relieved smile surfaced on his handsome face. He leaned in and while blushing, hugged her, he rested his chin on her left shoulder. She blushed at the contact, but returned it by wrapping her arms around him tightly. Roxas whispered in her ear, "Thank you." She smiled and replied just as softly, "Thank you too…" He pulled away, still smiling brightly. She playfully pinched and pulled both sides of his cheeks and joked, "I'm surprised your facial muscles didn't worn out for smiling that much." "Ow… hey, cut it out! They will worn out if you do that!" he whined, but still smiling, trying to pry her hands off his face.

She laughed and he followed. Then a breeze whizzed past, blowing her hair out of position. She tried to smooth it out, but Roxas did the job for her. He ran his fingers in her hair and her face turned into a tomato. He smiled at her and he pulled her closer. She rested her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her. They gazed into the calm serene sunset view. And he suddenly squeezed her left shoulder gently, she looked at him, and he looked straight at her in the eyes. It was so natural that they subconsciously closed in, and slowly but surely, he pressed his lips onto hers, sealing hers completely. "Tastes… salty… but sweet too… What was that again?" she pondered, but ignored it and returned the kiss willingly. And then they parted, reverted to hugging and marveling at the sunset again.

"Hey, Roxas… That taste… what was it again?"  
"… You mean, sea-salt?"  
"Oh, right… Let's buy that again sometime…"  
"Whatever you say…"

And she didn't realize she fell asleep on his shoulder, he sighed and said, "Geez, so much for this beautiful scenery…" And then he smiled and placed a kiss as light as a feather on her forehead. And he turned to gaze at the sunset, feeling peaceful, untroubled and serene, for his feelings were returned. "Well, the biggest burden was lifted…"

**The End**


End file.
